Tweet

Time Management Training, The Secrets of Using the WASP STING

Written by: Frank O`Toole

Article Overview: I have been facilitating time management training courses for a number of years and time and time again I am asked, how do you facilitate meetings successfully? It appears that the old saying of 'meetings are where minutes are taken and hours are wasted' still holds true in many organisations. Read on to discover the effective secrets behind the WASP STING.

Time Management Training, The Secrets of Using the WASP STING

I have been facilitating time management training courses for a number of years and time and time again I am asked, how do you facilitate meetings successfully? It appears that the old saying of 'meetings are where minutes are taken and hours are wasted' still holds true in many organisations. Meetings are essential in most organisations and meetings can be highly productive if they are facilitated and managed correctly. However poorly facilitated meetings will definitely impact on your time management and the time management of others.

I would like to share with you the acronym that I developed for helping people to remember the key areas involved in effective meetings. I use this acronym in all of our time management training courses and also in many of our management training courses.

Such is the success of this acronym that many people who have attended our time management training courseshave emailed me and said they have placed the acronym on the wall of the meeting room or notice board etc as a reminder.

I hope using the acronym will also help you, the acronym is WASP STING. I use this as it reminds me of a poorly facilitated meeting; the sting is painful, lasts for hours and often has bad side effects-no different than a poorly facilitated meeting.

So what is WASP STING?

Who should attend the meeting, always remember the only members of a meeting are those who can seriously contribute to the meeting or have a very serious need to know what is happening due to the impact of them or others. Never be afraid to invite people who need to know for only the section they need to know about and then let them go.

Having people in a room that do not need to be there is a serious waste of resource and shows ineffective time management and facilitation of meetings skill

Agenda, this is a bare minimum and we probably all know we need an agenda, but do we send the agenda out in plenty of time and do we also ask people to see if any of the agenda items can be dealt with prior to the meeting, so as the meeting is only a sign off for that item, example of this would be previous minutes, monthly reports etc.

The biggest mistake people make with agendas is they fail to time the agenda items-each agenda item should have a start time and finish time.

Scribe, some one should be nominated to take the minutes. Effective minute taking is an art in itself, a good minute taker should be able to summarise the salient points of the meeting to the group at the end of the meeting so as to avoid any discrepancies

Purpose, why are you calling a meeting? is there any other way sharing the information or getting the decisions made? If you can not write down the purpose clearly in less than 4 lines think again.

Summarise, at the end of each agenda item you must summarise to ensure that everyone is aware of the decision or to ensure who does what by when etc

Tangents, we believe on our time management courses this is probably one of the most under rated killers of effective time management. How many meetings have you attended where the meeting goes off track for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes etc

Some meetings never get back on track and even have to be revisited. The key to this is to nominate some one in the group to raise their hand if the meeting is going off on a tangent.

In our time management courses we name this role the 'track Master" and the function is to keep the meeting on track-it is a role that very few facilitators delegate but a role that should be delegated at each meeting it save bundles of time



Inclusion, If you have chosen the right people to be at the meeting there is little point having them there unless they can add to the meeting or bring something to the table. To effectively facilitate a meeting you must include all.

Next, you need to summarise what are the next steps at the end of the meeting, what happens now? What are the action points that people have to do, remember a meeting with no action points is only a conversation



Goals, I would have loved to have had this as one of the first part of the acronym but unfortunately this was the only place I could put it for WASP STING. Goals are vital for any meeting, what are you trying to achieve. If you don't have clear goals at a meeting the meeting will not work. You need goals to keep focus and remember the goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time framed)

As we say on our time management training course all that is left now is for you to take the sting out of your meetings and put the buzz back into them.

Related Articles
  Time Management - to Facilitate Highly Succesful Meetings
  The Heroes Control Their Business
  No More Secrets
  How to Predict Behavior Like Abraham Lincoln Did
  Success Isn't Magic

Article Tags: time management, time management training, time management training courses, time managemet courses



Related Forum Posts
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
7 words or less for Structogram - Some "7 words or less" (more or less) for Structogram for your comments: Training to get your message across(6) Secrets to get your message across (6) Training so people will listen to you (7) Helping you get your message across (6) Training to learn to get your message across (8) Communications training for yourself and your team (7)
Jacqueline Cochran! - Started out as a poor sharecropper, ended up as the founder of a cosmetic line and a pilot, head of the WASP during WWII. From starting from adversity and reaching the top, she's got to be up there as one of the greats.
Re: My Favourite 7 Boldest Entrepreneur Moves of All Time - Hi Evan, I have a new suggestion for "Boldest Entrepreneur Moves of All Time" and a suggestion for your Learning from the Masters series: 1. Boldest Entrepreneur Moves of All Time = Christopher Columbus: "... he saw the possibility of treasure and commerce where others saw only danger. He committed so wholeheartedly to that vision that not even dozens of rejections and ongoing penury could dissuade him from pursuing a journey to Asia via the West. He built on his technical strengths as a seaman to plan a viable journey and eventually marshal an expedition." - Christopher Hoenig, 6 Essential Secrets for Thinking on a New Level I bought Hoenig's book about 10 years ago but couldn't make head or tail of it then... reading it now and finding it inspirational... 2. Nomination for Learning from the Masters video: Dee Hock, founder of VISA. (Source = Hoenig.)
Your Intial Mistakes Business - Hi, When I started my business I had made a lot of mistakes initially. These helped me in learning the art of the trade and today when I look back, I feel that these mistakes were quite silly. I had made my learnings then and those learnings have helped me time and again. Some of the mistakes I made were - i. Wrong Time Management ii. Wasting money on glossy Brochures and Business cards iii. Believing what they taught me at school was 100% correct iv. Giving too much when it was not required...... I would like to find out what have been your faltering moments in Business when you had started and what/how did they help you grow. Regards


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What is Give Back Marketing?

What is Discretionary Cash Flow

RULE YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A SHINE STAR

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.